Research shows that long-term memory is enhanced through testing, particularly when feedback is controlled. The dilemma continues to be that students tend to focus more on scores than corrective feedback offered after tests. The Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IF-AT®) form was initially developed and studied for testing in introductory psychology courses to offer answer-until-correct (AUC) feedback during the exam to overcome delayed testing feedback limitations. Significant increases in item correctness on repeated measures was observed in studies comparing IF-AT® and more traditional bubble forms, often showing large effects. Our research seeks to understand the benefits of testing with immediate AUC feedback in the context of first-term general chemistry. We hypothesized increased item performance upon on repeat testing when IF-AT® forms were initially used during chemistry testing but that effect sizes would be smaller as compared to the earlier psychology studies given the complexity of general chemistry items. We also compared immediate AUC feedback conditions with non-corrective feedback conditions, predicting improved performance for the corrective feedback condition. During the last 3-5 weeks of the term (Time 1), general chemistry students took a practice test outside of course requirements covering four content areas using traditional bubble forms (Exp. 1) or using IF-AT® forms (Exp. 2). One week later (Time 2), the same students took an algorithmically cloned test with standard bubble forms. In Time 1, there were no significant differences in total performance between Exp. 1 and 2 (t(605)=1.69, p&gt; .05), whereas in Time 2 students in Exp. 2 performed significantly higher than those in study 1 (t(605)=3.19, p&lt; .05) although the effect size was small. Upon studying student responses at Time 1 & 2, students were statistically more likely to repeat the same error in Exp. 1 compared to Exp 2, and they were statistically more likely to correct mistakes in Exp. 2 compared to Exp. 1. Student performance changes as a function of item difficulty and item content coverage were also explored and will be presented.

Student performance improved through immediate answer-until-correct feedback during chemistry testing

254th National Meeting (2017)

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